About Us

Philly PARD (Performance Arts Research & Development) is a laboratory for the investigation of dance and movement-based art forms. PARD offers a range of classes and workshops taught by movement artists and innovators; as well as performances and showing cases for up-and-coming and emerging artists. Valuing the individual artist, their creative process and vital role within society, PARD is dedicated to the creation and implementation of affordable programs that nurture and initiate discourse and experimentation.

Silvana Cardell

Silvana Cardell, award winning Argentinean choreographer living and working in Philadelphia, since 2002. She was a dancer at Contemporary ballet dance company Grupo Adriana Coll Buenos Aires, Argentina (1983-1986) then at Group Motion Dance Company (1986-91). She served as Artistic Co-Director of Group Motion from 2005 to 2007. Cardell holds a BFA in dance from University of the Arts and a MFA in choreography from Temple University. She is a founder member of the board of directors of COCOA -Datei, a nonprofit organization devoted to developing the field of dance and independent dance groups in Argentina. From 1992 to 1996 Cardell served as the director of Armar Danza Teatro in Buenos Aires. For the next several years she directed her own dance company: S. Cardell Danza and EDA Escuela de Danza del Abasto, sponsored by Secretaria de Cultura de la Nacion . Along with her husband, architect Pablo Meninato, opened Sala Ana Itelman, a performance space sponsored by the Instituto Nacional del Teatro, which showcased year-round mainstream and avant-garde dance and physical theater national and international productions. Cardell received the most prestigious choreography award in Latin America from Fundacion Antorchas. Her work has been sponsored, commissioned by Instituto Nacional de Teatro, Secretaria de Cultura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Red Latinoamericana de Productores de Danza y Teatro, Teatro Gral San Martin, Pte Alvear, Teatro de las Provincias, National and International Dance and Theater Festivals, Group Motion, ADCF, UArts, Swarthmore College and the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.

﻿ Her repertory has been performed in ﻿Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay, Poland and Bulgaria. She has been invited to teach and perform at major dance and theater festivals throughout Latin America, including Festival de Río de Danza Tapias de Janeiro Brasil; Festival al Solsticio de la Primavera en Capilla del Monte, Córdoba; Escuela Municipal Norma Fontenla de San Salvador de Jujuy; Centro Cultural, Salta sponsored by Secretaría de Cultura de La Nación. Since 2005 to 2009) Cardell has served on the faculty at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, where she has been a guest choreographer (2011 and 2012). Since 2009 she is the Director of the Dance Department at Georgian Court University, New Jersey.

Leanne Grieger hails from Long Island, NY.She moved﻿ ﻿to Philadelphia﻿ to attend the University of the Arts, where she earned her BFA in Modern dance performance, and was also awardedOutstanding Overall Performance in Modern Dance. She has worked both academically and professionally with Silvana Cardell, Curt Haworth﻿ Manfred Fischbeck (Group Motion), Brian Sanders (Junk), Zane Booker, Gabrielle Revlock, and Wally Cardona. She has also studied at the Ailey School (NY), and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, which she attended under scholarship.﻿

Curt Haworth

Choreographer, Improviser, Teacher and Performer, Curt Haworth is an expatriate Californian who lived in New York City for twenty years before moving to Philadelphia in 2009. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz and a MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has an eclectic movement background ranging from athletics to modern dance and release techniques, to yoga, contact improvisation and ballet. Curt performed with Lisa Race’s Race Dance from 1993-2000, and toured internationally with David Dorfman Dance from 1990 to 2002, while creating over 15 original roles. He was a Movement Research Artist in Residence in 2001-2002, he has taught regularly at Movement Research and DNA (formerly Dance Space Center) in NYC. He has taught and set work as a guest artist throughout the United States and Europe and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

His work has been shown in Philadelphia at: the Annenberg Center, The Painted Bride. The CEC,and various Fringe venues; and in NYC at: TheDanspace Project, LA MAMA, DNA, Symphony Space, Movement Research at the Judson Church, IFNY, Dixon Place, PS122, Metamorphosis, DanceNow, New Dance Alliance; as well as at: Rockland Community College, Bennington College July Program, and Tanecne Divadlo in Bratislava Slovakia.

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Photo: Jason Chen﻿

Julia LopezDancing professionally since the age of 17, Julia Lopeztrained in Madrid with such notables as﻿ La Quica, Paco Fernandez, Ciro, Tomas de Madrid and Antonio Martin. The native Spaniard quickly became known throughout the country, appearing on Spanish television, in film, and on the most prominent stages in Spain including the Corral de La Moreria in Madrid. Internationally recognized, Ms. Lopez has graced the cabarets in Paris, and performed at the Expo in Canada; critics have called her "mesmerizing!"﻿﻿

She is best known in the United States for the successful company she founded ﻿﻿and directs - Flamenco Ole! Outside of the Company, her imaginative choreography has been seen in the Opera Company of Philadelphia's production of Carmen at the Academy of Music in which she performed the role of the lead dancer. She also choreographed La Traviata and Carmen for the Tri-Cities Opera Company in Binghampton, New York and in 1995, was nominated for the Barrymore Award for outstanding choreography in The Song of the Lizard at the People's Light and Theater Company in Malvern, Pennsylvania. She has won over audiences throughout the Americas, partnering with such prestigious dancers as Jose Greco, Juanele Maya and Miguel Sandoval. Each year Ms. Lopez returns to Spain where she reconnects with other contemporary flamenco artists and the great flamenco masters Tomas de Madrid and Ciro.

﻿Ms. Lopez has presented hundreds of lecture/demonstrations in schools throughout the United States and conducts flamenco dance classes at the Mount Vernon Dance Space . Ms. Lopez and her dance company seek to preserve flamenco as a vital art form by creating and performing both traditional and contemporary flamenco dance works and by providing the highest quality instructional and educational programs in flamenco to diverse adult and youth population.